Call of Juarez: The Cartel, isn't a very good game when you get to the basics. Its low production values and simple gameplay drag the experience down, while an erratic pace to the storyline makes it worse. There are some interesting ideas, such as the three-man co-op with varying points of view, but they aren't executed as well as they could be. It feels like there's a good title somewhere in the gameplay, and it's evident with a couple scenes that stand out, like a club packed with people or a fast chase across a packed highway, but aside from that the game simply fails to deliver.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel, like many other Ubisoft games, requires an Internet connection to start the game. This might not be an inconvenience to most players, but it's a consideration--though in this problematic first-person shooter, online digital rights management is hardly the greatest source of woe. This first-person shooter shows the signs of potential greatness. Few games combine the elements of cooperation and competition so ingeniously. There's nothing like being a dirty double-crosser--and getting away with it. It's invigorating to fulfill a challenge, yanking the experience points from under your comrades' noses and flaunting your shooting skills. The Cartel is worth playing if you have a buddy or two along for the ride, given that you can't count on finding random players to join. Otherwise, the potential is hard to see hiding behind all the glitches and obscenities.

Unfortunately, The Cartel was rushed to the market with at least 6 months left to go in production. If it stayed in development for a while longer, it could’ve used to the maximum potential what the cooperative campaign offered and all the interesting competitive elements. But the way it is now, it only misses the mark on all the design elements that could have ensured it a good place in the genre.

When Techland and Ubisoft revealed the surprising modern-day setting for the The Cartel, it was met with plenty of skepticism from the gaming community. This skepticism proved justified, as the game is generic at best, broken at worst, and falls short in its attempts to innovate cooperative play.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel is a poor change of pace for the franchise. Taking the story into modern times seems to have robbed it of its passion and charm, replacing it with asinine characters and more cuss words than an Al Pacino flick. It’s not the worst shooter I’ve played, but it’s got all the problems of a budget title and few redeeming qualities to make it worth recommending.

The story gets a little interesting, particularly the way each character is shady and has a different viewpoint with no-one getting the full picture, but there’s not enough to make me want to play it again to find out the rest. Call of Juarez: The Cartel is a disappointment and probably the end of a franchise that always had potential but never quite succeeded. And now it never will. Shame.